Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities | 29 Dec 2021

Why in News

On the eve of Good Governance Day (25^th December), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the ‘Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities- Toolkit 2022.

• It is the most important governance tool of waste management – the Star Rating Protocol for Garbage Free Cities.
• In the revised protocol the entire process of applying for certification has been simplified and made completely digital, paperless.
• And new components pertaining to Information, Education & Communication (IEC) , capacity building, revenue from sale of waste by-products have been added to encourage cities to build an ecosystem to strengthen waste management systems.

Key Points

• About:
  • The Star Rating Protocol was launched by the MoHUA in 2018 to institutionalise a mechanism for cities to achieve Garbage Free status, and to motivate cities to achieve higher degrees of sustainable cleanliness.
  • In the recently concluded certification exercise for Garbage Free Cities nearly 50% of ULBs( Urban Local Bodies) (2,238 cities) participated in the certification exercise, of which a total of 299 cities have been certified.
    • 9 cities have been rated as 5-star, 143 cities rated as 3-star and 147 cities as 1-star.
    • In October 2021, Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 was launched, to create “Garbage Free Cities” (GFC), thereby placing India on a new trajectory of growth towards an ecosystem of holistic sanitation and waste management.
  • It is one of the various initiatives which intends to make Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) a successful project.
• Based On:
  • It is based on 12 parameters which follow a SMART framework – Single metric, Measurable, Achievable, Rigorous verification mechanism and Targeted towards outcomes.
    • The star rating conditions have been designed in a way to enable cities to gradually evolve into a model (7-star) city, with progressive improvements in their overall cleanliness.
  • It is a comprehensive framework that assesses cities across 23 different components of Solid Waste Management (SWM) and is graded based on overall marks received.
• Procedure:
  • The Star Rating is supported by self-assessment and self-verification for achieving a certain star rating. It also ensures the involvement of citizen groups for a transparent system of self-declaration.
  • Further, the self-declaration is further verified through an independent third party agency appointed by MoHUA.

• Significance:
  • The performance of cities under the Star Rating Protocol is crucial as it carries significant weightage for their final assessment in Swachh Survekshan.
    • Swachh Survekshan is the annual urban cleanliness survey conducted by the government.
  • It also ensures certain minimum standards of sanitation through a set of prerequisites defined in the framework.
  • Since the rating is conducted at a city level, it makes the process easier to implement and helps the cities incrementally improve their overall cleanliness.
  • The rating protocol is an outcome-based tool that helps MoHUA and other stakeholders to evaluate cities on the basis of this single rating.

Source: PIB